Foreseen - Untamed Force (2022)

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Finland's Foreseen have been around for a better part of a decade, throwing their weight around in the arena of thrash and crossover, and they have never before faltered in their approach of agitated dirge. They continue the destruction on Untamed Force upping the ante with riff after riff under a production that is right on the money here—Mirky and heavy to the point of crumbling but not brittle under its own weight.

This is what crossover sounds like when you listen to English Dogs, Crumbsuckers, Whiplash, Razor, Verbal Abuse, etc.—Drawing upon the well but never sucking it dry without throwing your own thoughts and ideas into the pot. I'm into everything about this record!

Foreseen - Untamed Force (bandcamp)

Chasm Shroud - Manna From Heaven (2022)

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You peer into the void. You see nothing, but hear faint sounds in the distance emanating from the yawning maw of black space…

Manna From Heaven came out of nowhere, suddenly appearing (no demos or EP’s prior) and carrying with it some of the most intriguing black metal I’ve heard all year—It’s hard to pin down exactly, but a strange energy circulates here, like it’s been ritually charged and imbued with unknown intent.

The above statement might feel hyperbolic or even trite, but the overall sense is something palpable—An ominous portent of oblique black metal soundscapes reverberating around hypnotic dirges in a hallucinatory haze of frenetic dissonance. NAME YOUR PRICE, don't be a knucklehead!

Chasm Shroud - Manna From Heaven (bandcamp)

Ara - Gurre (2022)

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Channeling the same austerity and heft as was circling around the fjords of Norway in the 90’s black metal sound, Ara (meaning “Era” in German) ride under those same black banners—Evincing a similar raw power through a bottom of the barrel production and a flurry of icy tremolo picking.

It’s form over function and it sounds PRIMITIVE! A thousand other bands released albums in 2022 that tried to do the same thing, but few captured Gurre’s ability to do more with less. This has been flying under the banner of most from what I can tell… I think it's a great black metal album with a grimy punk tinge to it. Recommended for fans of Okkultokrati, Bone Awl, Raspberry Bulbs, etc.

Ara - Gurre (bandcamp)

Imperial Cult - Spasm of Light (2019)

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Been listening to the new Mork album a decent amount, on top of a handful of other releases that will soon get their brief moment in the spotlight over here at SHOM soon enough, until then, satiate your need for raw and unrelenting black metal via Holland's Imperial Cult—Spasm of Light is a highlight of 2019 to be sure—Something about the current looming dread has caused me to have returned to it quite a bit as of late, and just assumed you might want to as well… and if not, that's just bent, man. One 35-minute track of downward spiralling black metal heavily entrenched in a wall of sound and atmospheric armageddon served on a brass platter next to the goats heads soup. No inner peace.

Imperial Cult - Spasm of Light (bandcamp)

Barbarian - Barbarian (2012)

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Here's an album I just wanted to remind everyone of! I have been heavily dipping into this gem of an EP quite a lot recently—I guess black thrash/speed is high on my radar right now and this Italian beast nailed everything on this 25-minute EP, spot on production and the best release from the band in my opinion. Dig in!

Barbarian - Barbarian (bandcamp)

Sulpur - Embracing Hatred and Beckoning Darkness (2021)

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Here's another Amor Fati Productions release that is cold as hell and well worth your attention! Embracing Hatred and Beckoning Darkness is the debut album from Sulpur, which (as of now) has no known information about the band, further bolstering its obscurity. Second wave black metal that hearkens back to the early 90's in a lot of ways but feels much less influenced by the early sounds of thrash and speed metal that the earlier progenitors latched onto—Instead Sulpur drinks from the same well as MGLA, Algor, Lluvia, and many of the Icelandic black metal bands (to name a region) wholly dedicated to this style built on a blistering tempo and a dense, frigid soundscape.

The songwriting here is essentially without any flaws—the riffs come in fast and cold as a witch tit, the drums are mixed perfectly down to the splash cymbal and even the pickup on the bell is right where it's supposed to be. The same can be said about the vocal work, which makes use of some nice versatility. No single track dips below the 7-minute mark and there isn't a single moment on this album that I could reasonably consider filler, nothing stale here, just blistering black metal that has done everything right. One of the best I've heard this year so far.

Sulpur - Embracing Hatred and Beckoning Darkness (bandcamp)

Suffering Hour - The Cyclic Reckoning (2021)

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Here we go again, Profound Lore doing what Profound Lore does better than almost any other record label out there, consistently putting out releases within the umbrella of metal that is forward-thinking, hard hitting and unequivocally true to its cause. In the case of Suffering Hour, the trio out of Forest Lake, Minnesota, are emerging into the new year with their sophomore album, The Cyclic Reckoning, and they are punching way above their weight.

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This new album is a monolithic tower of black/death metal, trading between genres with purpose and force, and the concocted energy as well as atmosphere are forces that emit an untapped barbarity through serpentining black metal chords, pummelling drums and a combined vocal output that sounds sheer… At times summoning the same ferocity as Death Fortress, which if you know me, is a volatility I appreciate in something flying under the banner of death metal. Only two songs have been released so far… but I'm sure as hell paying attention.

Suffering Hour - The Cyclic Reckoning (bandcamp)

Couch Slut - Take a Chance on Rock n' Roll (2020)

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Couch Slut have been around for the last 6 years quietly making a lot of noise in the form of noise-rock mixed with a healthy amalgamation of influences and soundscapes running the gamut of punk, doom, sludge, hardcore and throwing in glimpses of anything else they can get their grubby mitts on – experimentation. Amidst the chaos, Couch Slut have managed to create a sound that is almost wholly unique in their delivery and I can't help but find myself reaching to hit the play button. If sonic aspects of Brainbombs, Indian, Jute Gyte, Converge and Iron Lung were distilled into a singular sound it might come out sounding like this.

Take a Chance on Rock n' Roll (bandcamp)

Warp Chamber - Implements of Excruciation (2020)

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Chris Bruni of Profound Lore Records has always had his hands on the pulse of death metal, feeling for signs of life and then giving that life existence on the planes of sonic annihilation. He's had a few misses during his tenure (my opinion) but other than that, Profound Lore Records is one of the most consistent record labels out in the abyss of all things metal or tied to that which is heavy.

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Warp Chamber come out swinging on their debut full-length, a full-bodied attack of churning and cavernous death metal with a predilection for fetid guitar tones, bloated vocals and a backdrop that sounds nothing short of putrid. You get the point I'm not so subtly making, yeah? implements of Excruciation isn't reinventing the wheel or anything, but the integrity and brute force in which they will pummel you for thirty straight minutes is a thing to behold. There isn't a single second of filler floating around in these caves of churning riffs and vocal belches, it's absolutely filthy, and the way the drumming manages to bob and weave its way around with adept blasts and fills restores a fragment of my faith within 2020's ability to impress upon me. One of the better releases of the year so far, and it's not even close.

Implements of Excruciation (bandcamp)

Nox Formulae - Drakon Darshan Satan (2020)

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Dark Descent Records is a label you can set your watch to quite consistently when it comes to digging into something that satiates that filthy hankering you may or may not often get for something putrid, something that exudes fumes of rot from a bloated corpse, with leaking bile and black candles of ceremony. Take that as you will, or as you won't, it's all the same really.

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I'm impatiently waiting for more releases as we're already in March and there's only one full length (almost out) to speak of thus far, and one phenomenal split release from Anhedonist and Spectral Voice. To come out at the end of March though, is this promising release from Nox Formulae. I've only heard the one song up on bandcamp but I can already say I'm fully bought in. All in on the pot, pre flop, as some might say. Take a listen for yourself and understand that form isn't always linear, and style isn't always cohesive, but chaos can be beautiful especially when its saturated in that cold sonic sound that often comes out of the scene in Greece.

Here's the thing though, (I feel like I get into this frame of mind every single year) we're approaching the first quarter of the new year and I have yet to be floored by any one release yet in the arena of metal. Which I only bring up because maybe I'm missing something? I mean my ears aren't constantly on the ground, so I hope I am. If anyone has any sources or recommendations please smack me upside the head with them. Forever grateful, Chris.

Nox Formulae - Drakon Darshan Satan (bandcamp)

Bleach Birth - Hatching Inside The Womb (2018)

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Bleach Birth have released their second full-length and it's some incredibly feral and filthy punk rife with feedback, grime, and scummy snotty vocal delivery… Think a mix of The Daily Void, Soupcans, Helta Skelta and The Functional Blackouts with flourishes of forward thinking song structures that push passed inebriated simplicity. I'm very much into everything about this… and this has me thinking, when are Strange Attractor going to finally release another LP? Frig. Fans of the aforementioned will find joy here, and if not, your ears are not working correctly.

Bleach Birth - Hatching Inside The Womb (bandcamp)

MARE - Ebony Tower (2018)

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Trondheim, Norway is a cold, desolate and unrelenting place in the winter season, I have been there in the early onset of winter and in my brief time spent, I was left bereft and frigid to the bone. MARE come from Trondheim, Norway, so you'd be a dummy ignoramus to expect anything other than icy black metal; icicle tremolo picking layered over a galloping drum force while some forest druid recites incantations atop some mountain through chants and shrieks of desperation and pity. The Bandcamp page has further details on the enigma;

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Forged in the early 2000's, MARE has become quite the mysterious gem for underground fanatics across the globe. Rarely playing live and with hard to get releases, the band has become, for many, one of the few 'real' Black Metal bands out there left in todays oversaturated scene. To many they have seemed to do so on purpose, but for us working closely with the band it is simply in their nature not to bother. They make music for themselves, they do this for themselves, and rest assured MARE will genuinely keep going down their own path never caring about hypes, fashion, trends or fame. They arrogantly named their own music 'Nidrosian Black Sorcerous Art' which defines who they are, on stage and off stage. 

This isn't a show, this isn't a gimmick. 

This is real Black Metal how it always was meant to be. 

Ebony Tower (bandcamp)

Mutilation Rites - Chasm (2018)

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Mutilation Rites newest full-length is real pleasant, in a sort of ugly and decrepit kind of way… It's charms are hidden in the mire, under layers of cold riffs and bastille day like war drums as its ferocious commander coughs out commands and chokes on bile. A two-headed beast of black metal and death metal, a not so uncommon amalgam these days…but hey, peanut butter and chocolate right? (chocolate and mint is wrong)

I'm liking what I've heard off of Chasm so far, I'm sure I could nit-pick but the production is pretty spot on for this ilk, murky. I have listened through Chasm a few times since writing this, each time I have gone back I'm finding another thing to like about it, especially in the wake of those trumpeting icy riffs that sway from galloping to mid-tempo glacial sludge to bang thy brain to and fro.

* It's worth noting Gilead Media has Chasm up on Bandcamp to buy for only $6, that's very, very reasonable and a good halfway point between affordable. It takes money to make a record.

Mutialtion Rites - Chasm (bandcamp)